A positive review of 2025’s first Trek ornaments by Kelly Phillips over at TrekCore:
“Boimler’s purple hair has its gravity defying swoop perfectly recreated here, along with those trusting big round eyes and earnest little half smile. I love the inclusion of the 2380 purple-stripe tricorder from Season 1’s “Envoys.”
“The Mariner ornament has that sassy side eye and smirk that we love about her. The fact that she is brandishing a phaser with one hand and her other hand is on her hip is very much in character.”
“While a more widely-available edition will arrive this October, the Enterprise-B made this year’s slate to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: Generations… and I have to say, I am in love.” -Kelly Phillips, TrekCore.com
“The real standout for me is the texture of the Talosian robe. I was worried it may look a bit flat, based on the photo on the front of the box.” -Kelly Phillips, TrekCore.com
Be sure to read the entire review with spectacular close up images…
Kelly Phillips of TrekCore.com has posted a review of Data’s Ode to Spot which is available in stores now. Please visit Trek Core to read the entire review which includes photos and a video.
“Data has those striking gold android eyes and the precision brown haircut just as he should. Spot is painted beautifully in all her cuddly orange tabby cat glory.”
Well, that’s a very gracious review and one I’d not seen. Thanks for sharing this with the group. The reviewer raised a fair question that I’ll answer here. Kelly wrote:
“In a perfect world, I’d have loved for the ornament to include the whole poem. I don’t know if this was some kind of technical limitation or just a creative decision, but it’s a small demerit on what is otherwise a lovely ornament for my collection.”
Technical limitation or creative decision? Why not both? 🙂 There was a limitation on the ornament in that typically we use chips that can hold about 27 seconds of audio. (Some ornaments have bigger chips with greater capacities but those also carry higher MSRPs.)
And that’s where the creative decision came in. Myself, I regard the poem’s first four and final four lines as the most memorable:
Felis catus is your taxonomic nomenclature, An endothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature; Your visual, olfactory, and auditory senses Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses.
I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations, A singular development of cat communications That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection.
A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents; You would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance. And when not being utilized to aid in locomotion, It often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.
O Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array. And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend, I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.
Also recall that Data opens his recitation with an introduction, and later is interrupted by applause from Commander Riker, upon which Data comments. The whole thing runs close to two minutes long. To spare you the expense of time and money, I made the edits.
I hope it makes a fun addition to your tree and your collection.
The (McCoy Storyteller) audio sounds nice and clear, and Hallmark did a great job of including some of the most iconic lines.
I was especially impressed with the sculpt on this ornament; it looks so much like DeForest Kelley! They even captured that skeptical eyebrow arch and slightly furrowed brow.
Mirror Storytellers show featuring seven characters and no Enterprise.
While I’ve read some views that the (Strange New Worlds Enterprise) ornament looks more like the version of the ship introduced in Star Trek: Discovery — a model which was slightly tweaked for Strange New Worlds — I can’t say I notice any of those differences.
Please visit TrekCore to read more of the review and see close up images.
“The comments regarding the SNW Enterprise are fair ones. Given how much time it takes to move an ornament from idea to the tree, I’m confident the assets we had at hand when we needed them were from Star Trek: Discovery. How far in advance are we working? We’ve got the Star Trek ornaments for 2024 awaiting approval so they can advance to sculpting.”
TrekCore.com has posted their review of the latest Storyteller ornament, Scotty, that was released in July.
Considering these audio clips are coming from a 1960s television show, I think the sound quality is pretty remarkable — especially when you compare it to some of the very early talking Star Trek ornaments from the 90s.
As for the physical ornament, Mirror Scotty’s uniform and accessories are nicely detailed. The character has his dagger on his right hip, his phaser on his left, the iconic Terran empire logo is present on his chest, along with the three medals pins on the left and rank braids on his sleeves — and of course, that stylishly evil gold lamé sash (which isn’t quite sparkly enough for me!).
Trekcore.com has posted a review of the latest Hallmark Star Trek ornament. La Sirena was the first ornament representing Star Trek: Picard and is available in stores now.
As for the “magic” features, this year’s Hallmark offering doesn’t have any lighting effects, though this version of La Sirena does have an integrated sound chip which cycles through a handful of audio clips from Star Trek: Picard’s first season — all from Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), though it would have been nice to have at least one recording of the starship’s captain, Cris Rios (Santiago Cabrera) in the mix.
The 1994 ornament (top) compared to this year’s release.
“In fact, if you look at the photo on the ornament’s box, you can barely make out the details in the sculpt. Honestly, it doesn’t even photograph that well — but when you take a look at the 1994 Bird of Prey ornament, THAT ship looks like it flew right off the screen and onto my tree.”
-Kelly Phillips, trekcore.com
Visit trekcore.com for full review and more images.
TrekCore has posted their review of this year’s Star Trek Hallmark ornaments. Please stop in to their site and their thoughts on the latest Christmas offerings.
Hallmark Star Trek Ornaments 